PHILIPPINES: Treatment of Women Better Now But Still Wanting

Basing on the experience of her mother, Dr. Ana Lua Tubban, wife of Mayor Ferdinand Tubban, who was the guest speaker during the Women's Day celebration in the city on March 8, said that women of today are better off than their counterparts in the 1950s when it comes to discrimination against their sex.

Dr. Tubban related that her grandfather refused to send her mother to college because back in those days, daughters were rarely allowed to go to college on the ground that they may not earn a degree after all as marriage will get in the way.
Determined to go to college, however, her mother sought the help of an uncle who agreed to support her pursuit of a secretarial degree.

After she graduated, her uncle tried to get her a job in the publishing company he was working in but she was not accepted because “masyado kang maganda para maging sekretarya” (your're too beautiful to be a secretary).

According to the doctor, women of today are lucky because “we have reached this point when we have laws to protect our rights.”
Women of today could now enter the different professions and even become president of the country, Dr. Tubban said.

But there is still a lot of work to be done to improve treatment of women in the country, the doctor said, even as she expressed the wish that the Magna Carta for Women will be fully implemented.
Speaking ahead of Dr. Tubban, Vice Mayor Darwin Estranero and Councilors Arnold Tenedero and Sandra Mejia promised to work for the further improvement of the lot of women in the city.
“We affirm our commitment to the mandate of the law to raise to higher and broader level of awareness the integration of women as full and equal partner in socio-economic and political development,” Estranero said.

He vowed to work for the establishment of an inter-agency council for the protection of women and children against abuse and also called on men to stop treating women as “toys and objects of lust and prejudices.”

For his part, Tenedero promised the more or less 1,500 women who attended the celebration that he will review the Magna Carta for Women to see what among the benefits it provides could be implemented by the LGU given its current financial situation.
Mejia said that the LGU will look into the possibility of implementing the support mechanisms provided for in the just enacted Gender and Development Code such as the crisis intervention center which is a temporary shelter for women victims of violence as well as the women and children welfare desk which will serve families in crisis situations.

In his turn at the lectern, Mayor Tubban took the opportunity to call on the women to pray hard so that very soon, the Supreme Court will decide the case filed by the League of Cities of the Philippines against the 16 new cities in favor of the latter.
But he asked the women to wait patiently because while the case is pending, the internal revenue allotment or IRA of the city is still that of a town.